Still another one written for the 1001 Drabble Challenge.

"Gabriel."

He should not hesitate or linger here. This is the enemy, the vampire even Rome finds irredeemable, and it is his duty to kill the creature.

He cannot kill it, though, until he learns what it knows about him. "How do you know my name?"

The thing looks at him with a human face and smiles gently.

"Don't you remember me, Gabriel?"

There are echoes and undertones in the way it says his name. Hints of memories and secrets he's not sure he wants to remember, and yet....

The creature moves faster than thought, stands only a breath away and touches his face with cold fingers. Van Helsing can move that fast. He can kill that fast, and he's not sure why his own instincts didn't have the creature impaled on the end of a stake when it got that close. Except the touch of its hand is like the sound of his name, and while he doesn't remember, precisely, he at least feels there is something to be remembered.

"Remind me," he says.

Neither the creature's smile nor the creature's touch are gentle anymore, but that's all right. Van Helsing does not think they ever used to be.

~END~